1  Best Free Web Browser
Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is a competent browser with enough features to meet the needs of most users but does have on-going security concerns.  In the past IE has been a focus for security attacks and there is little to suggest this has changed in IE7. Additionally, Microsoft have a poor track record for speedily fixing IE defects and this has left users open to drive-by attacks and other forms of zero-day exploits.

There are several excellent alternatives with the new Mozilla Firefox V2 [1] a solid first choice.  It's safer than IE, so safe in fact that many users have reported no spyware infections since they started using the product. It's also browses a tad faster than IE, is very stable and is more standards compliant. The program loads slower than IE but once running, it positively zips along. With tabbed browsing and over 1000 free extensions (add-ons) that allow you to customize your experience, it provides most users with a major surfing upgrade. Firefox is now my everyday browser though I still leave IE on my PC for the occasional web site that's designed around IE's non-standard features site: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/  (5.6MB)

An equal first choice is Opera.   It's a speed demon; probably the fastest of all the common browsers. But it's much more than that; it's full featured, standards compliant and safe. Just as Firefox is extensible through add-ins, Opera can be enhanced using Widgets, though there are not nearly as many of these available as Firefox extensions. Then again, it doesn't need as many extensions as a lot of the features added by Firefox add-ins are already available built into the standard Opera browser. There's just so much to like about Opera V9 that you could easily create a case that it's better than Firefox. Indeed, if I could get an Opera replacement for some of my key Firefox add-ins, I'd probably switch. Site: http://www.opera.com/ (4.6MB)
2  Best Free Anti-Virus Software  

There are two equal recommendations in this category. First there is AVG Antivirus 7 Free Edition. This product  http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/) has been continuously refined since it was first released in 1991 and the recently released V7.5 makes further improvements to an already solid product. Additionally, it's relatively small, light on resources, has regular automatic updates and handles email scanning. There is a free and a pro version, the only difference being that the free version has a few non-critical features disabled and has no direct technical support.
Equally effective is the free Avast! scanner

(http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html) though its funky media player style interface is not to everyone's taste. Avast! also required periodic re-registration while AVG does not. However Avast! does not seem to suffer the signature file update problems that plague some AVG users.

Both AVG and Avast! are excellent free products that will meet the needs of most users.  However, neither can be considered to be the best available. That title belongs to commercial products like NOD32,  F-Secure, the full version of Kaspersky AV and others.  They are however capable packages and offers the financially challenged a real alternative to the major anti-virus suites.

However if you use these free products in conjunction with a free on-demand scanner, you can achieve a level of detection approaching that of the best commercial products. Further improvement is possible by creating a layered defense using additional free security products such as AVG Anti-